Henry David Thoreau

None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.

If a man is alive, there is always danger that he may die, though the danger must be allowed to be less in proportion as he is dead-and-alive to begin with. A man sits as many risks as he runs.

We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries every day with new experience and character.

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

Be true to your work, your word, and your friend.

War is not a matter for the professional pacifist or militarist. It is for the unprofessional people. They finance and fight it, they bear its losses. Therefore, they should have the deciding voice concerning it. To do this, they require all the information upon which decisions are made. They should know in a difference, whether it is soluble by rational intelligence, or inevitable by force. Not once in a thousand instances would our people (this may not be true of all peoples, however) approve an offensive war. Never would they be lax in defensive action. For this is their country. However, most of their enemies are within it.

Wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires. All wars are undertaken for the acquisition of wealth; and the reason why we have to acquire wealth is the body, because we are slaves in its service.

Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war.

Thus, then, on the night of the tenth of May, at the outset of this mighty battle, I acquired the chief power in the State, which henceforth I wielded in ever-growing measure for five years and three months of world war, at the end of which time, all our enemies having surrendered unconditionally or being about to do so, I was immediately dismissed by the British electorate from all further conduct of their affairs.

Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons.

We are not retreating – we are advancing in another Direction

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.

I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they’d never expect it.

You don’t win wars by dying for your country you win wars by making the other son of a b*tch die for his.

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can’t smile, grin. If you can’t grin, keep out of the way till you can.

The enemy is in front of us, the enemy is behind us, the enemy is to the right and to the left of us. They can’t get away this time!

War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality.

It’s been a big week for our side. Over on the beaches of Normandy our boys have fired the opening guns of the long awaited drive to liberate the world.

Where force is necessary, there it must be applied boldly, decisively and completely. But one must know the limitations of force; one must know when to blend force with a maneuver, a blow with an agreement.